Quick Facts...
Date: November 13, 2010
Location: Somewhere in Central Florida, TBD
Sanction: USATF
Meet Director: Laura Fredrickson
Supported by: FYRA (newly formed non-profit) and flrunners.com
The whole story...
Numerous supporters of middle school cross country from around the state joined a conference call on Wednesday to lay the initial groundwork for plans for a Florida middle school cross country championship in Florida. Many have been clamoring for such an event for several years now, as an answer to the popular flrunners.com sponsored Track & Field State Championship.
Two weeks ago Joe Mizereck (father of Matt Mizereck) posed a question on the forum of how to increase the participation in the sport. Discussion ensued and it morphed into a conversation about planning a state championship. Joe took that as a sign and began organizing a planning committee and thus it was born!
The group of supporters in this ad hoc committee, implemented by Mizereck, will form a non-profit organization called the Florida Youth Running Association (FYRA) that will initiate this event starting in the fall. FYRA will not only be charged with planning and overseeing the state championship and promoting the sport, but also will seek to earn funding by way of grants and sponsors to fund new and ailing middle school and elementary cross country and track & field programs.
In today's meeting the reigns of the state cross country meet were given to Laura Fredrickson as meet director, Billy Convey and Jason Byrne have pledged to lend their support and experience as well. After much debate, the group voted to set the date as originally planned for November 13. This is a week before the high school state meet, providing a potential problem for any private school athletes hoping to pull double duty; however, given that most middle school programs currently end their season the last week of October, delaying the meet to Thanksgiving weekend was ruled out.
While there are many details yet to be ironed out, the community can cheer knowing that the ball is finally rolling to make this happen. Look for more announcements and additional planning conference calls to come. Please discuss this on the forum and let your voice be heard on what you'd like to see happen with this organization and meet.
Thank you to those on the call today...
Joe Mizereck (FYRA), Ken Key (Westminster Academy), Jason Byrne (flrunners.com), Laura Fredrickson (FISH Hawks), Chris Sumner (Godby HS), Robert Higham (Sarasota), Gary Kinney (Raa Middle), Billy Convey (Ransom Everglades), Robin Safley, and Frank Ramos (All-Catholic Conference).